Easily the best of the cavalry trilogy
This movie flows so well that I think it's the best of the three.
shareProbably. This was the first one I saw and I liked it a lot. Now I saw the second one (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) and was surprised how clunky and unfocused it felt in comparison. I've not seen the third one but it appears to be the least well regarded on this site.
shareRio Grande has a slightly tighter plot but it's not nearly as beautiful looking. For all the great shots of Monument Valley that are in The Searchers (my favorite movie ever), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon has some of the very best. Ford was really firing on all cylinders as far as photography goes.
Rio Grande also has some great horsemanship from Ben Johnson. He rides some horses Roman Style and it's very impressive. It also has Maureen O'Hara. But it's also kind of a bland story...and no Fonda!
So it's kind of six in one, half a dozen in the other as to which is the least enjoyable. Granted, I'll always watch any of them when they're on...but Fort Apache is something very special.
I've gone back and forth for decades between Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. When I was younger I definitely preferred Fort Apache; now, much older, I lean to the more contemplative SWAYR. And while John Wayne is perfectly fine in Fort Apache, his performance in SWAYR, convincingly playing 20-25 years older than his actual age, is one of his very best performances. In any case, both of these films are wonderful and true classics. Rio Grande is a solid, enjoyable move, and it's always great to see Wayne and Maureen O'Hara together, but it's just not on the same level as the first two installments of the "trilogy."
FWIW, both films are beautifully shot. The scene in Fort Apache of the fort's women watching the command ride out beneath glowering dawn skies is particularly indelible. However, the Academy Award winning Technicolor cinematography in SWAYR is just breathtaking, especially in the newly released BD. (Though as one who loves B&W films, and hates the absolute refusal by many younger viewers to watch them, I fee a little guilty comparing the two movies on this basis.)
Ford loved group shots of women/children watching people march off. Lots of them in Wagon Master, How Green Was My Valley etc.
I do think Maureen gives SWAYR the vibrant character it really needed, but Fort Apache has Anna Lee, Pedro Armendariz and obviously Fonda turning in some colorful characters. I also feel as though Fort Apache has the tighter screenplay that hits its marks right on time.
I agree with how beautiful Yellow Ribbon is, especially those shots during the lightning storm and Wayne sitting in his office reading.
Just to add my .02 worth, I think Rio Grande is as good as either of the other two, as the story is quite compelling.
To be honest, even though I LOVE Fort Apache, Fonda's character get's REALLY old, VERY quickly. It's integral to the story, of course, but he plays it SO well, he bugs the crap out of me.
Each of these movies has it's own charm, and Rio Grande us right up there, especially Victor McLaglen's performance.
I don't act...I react. John Wayne
I think that Fonda's most sublime performances were under Ford.
My Darling Clementine, Young Mr. Lincoln, Grapes of Wrath and Fort Apache. His performance in My Darling Clementine is one of my very favorite ever...he and Ford were really in lockstep with what they were trying to say. No other director got those kinds of performances from him, imo.
I agree that Fonda was BRILLIANT under Ford's direction - until their falling out during the filming of "Mr. Roberts."
What I didn't like was simply his character. That's the mark of a great actor, and Duke had it as well, and not just with Ford, but most notably with Howard Harks...
I don't act...I react. John Wayne
Yeah, I definitely think that Hawks brought out some nuance from Wayne in Red River.
A movie I think I should mention, that I never see brought up is one called "Tall In The Saddle" with the beautiful Ella Raines. Wayne gave a nice performance there that I believe marked the middle point between Ford's Stagecoach and Hawk's Red River.
Raines may have stolen the show from Wayne in Tall In The Saddle but it was where Wayne finally turned the corner and needed something like Red River to come along.
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I'm 60, so I grew up watching a lot of black and white movies and I still enjoy watching them. But I can understand why young people nowadays can't stand to watch them. To me, it's the same as how I cannot and never have been able to watch a silent film. It's not what i grew up watching and its just not what I think of as a "movie." Young people, who grew up watching nothing but color films and TV, view B&W films the same way.
This is brought home forcefully in the scene in Fort Apache when John Wayne and Beuafort are on the ridge overlooking a mervelous vista of the Grand Canyon -- except that it isn't marvelous because it's in black and white. Anyone who's ever spent time in the American Southwest knows that it's the colors that make the scenery truly spectacular.